ANTHRO 211
Human Sex, Gender and Sexuality
Please note: this is archived course information from 2019 for ANTHRO 211.
Description
Gender as a cultural construction has been a dynamic field of anthropological inquiry for almost half a century, during which ethnographic and theoretical approaches have continued to develop.
The course considers issues such as how different peoples exhibit and conceptualise gender differences, the ways in which gender is simultaneously a social and cultural product and a force in shaping social and cultural phenomena, how anthropologists have studied them and contemporary issues in human gender relations at global, national and local scales.
This course covers some of the many anthropological questions about gender in human societies through cross-cultural and -temporal perspectives. It takes a culturally relativist position and you are expected to do likewise. The focus is on anthropological understanding of embodied, social, cultural and political phenomenon and on engaging our assumptions about things we take for granted, wherever we find ourselves on the gender (or gender politics) spectrum.
By the end of the course, you should:
- Understand sex, sexuality and gender as social and cultural phenomena
- Recognise the embeddedness of gender in wider community, national and global structures and relationships
- Understand the topics covered in cross-cultural and historical perspective
- Be able to think reflexively about your own gender position, identity and situation
- Understand a range of anthropological perspectives on gender
Availability 2019
Semester 2
Lecturer(s)
Lecturer(s) Dr Alex Pavlotski
Reading/Texts
TBA
Points
ANTHRO 211: 15 points
Prerequisites
ANTHRO 100 or 30 points in Anthropology, Gender Studies, History or Sociology
Restrictions
ANTHRO 215 and ANTHRO 342